Unless of course, your name is Julius Caesar and the year is 44 BC, then you’re about to have a really bad March 15th. To the Romans, the ides didn’t mean anything sinister. The ides simply marked the middle of each month. That’s it.

But thanks to Brutus and the Roman Senate, it has come to symbolize the date of Caesar’s assasination – beware the Ides of March!

History is loaded with betrayals: Brutus, Benedict Arnold, and whoever ratted out the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylea. In literature, betrayal is commonly used as a plot twist. I’ve used it once or twice.

Betrayal exists in so many forms: Family backstabbing, corporate greed, an apprentice killing the master, friendships gone sour, betraying your country. Even betraying your own ideals. So many flavors and all of them leave a bitter taste in the mouth.

But, as a writer, you should never be afraid to go down the dark path. Traitors have a place in fiction. In romance, it can drive the hero and heroine apart. It can also bring them back together. Depending on the genre, your protagonist can be ruined by betrayal or uplifted (or both!).

Case in point – Casey’s Top Fictional Betrayers (not in any special order):

1. Fredo Corleone – The Godfather by Mario Puzo. When Michael Corleone realizes that his own brother has betrayed him, it’s heartbreaking and ultimately destroys what little soul Michael has left. In true mafia style, Fredo ends up swimming with the fishes – the execution ordered by his brother Michael.

2. Edmund Pevensie–The Lion, The Witch, and The Wadrobe by C. S. Lewis. If you think only mafia families can backstab each other – wrong! Even children’s stories aren’t immune to betrayers. Edmund is influenced by the White Witch (and her endless supply of Turkish Delight) and he betrays his siblings. But with Aslan’s intervention, not all is lost. Edmund redeems himself and joins Peter, Susan and Lucy to defeat the witch.

3. Anakin Skywalker– The Stars Wars Saga by George Lucas. Anakin doesn’t listen to Yoda and lets his anger consume him. Yes, he betrays the Jedi Order and the Republic, but Anakin majorly betrays himself by turning his back on his master and training. Not to mention, that whole “I am your father” incident and literallay lopping off his own son’s hand!

4. Mr. Wickham– Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The most odious of betrayers, Mr. Wickham uses falsehoods under the guise of friendship to lure Elizabeth Bennet into seriously misjudging Mr. Darcy. And then he runs off with Lydia Bennet, the youngest daughter!

5. Thomas Barrow and Sara O’Brien– Downtown Abbey by Julian Fellowes. These two are the dynamic duo of backstabbing. Not only do they cause subtle and sometimes serious mayhem (hello bar of soap!) both upstairs and downstairs, in season three, they embark on backstabbing each other!

6. Saruman the White – The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. Nothing stings worse than discovering that the leader of your wizard order is a turncoat. Poor Gandalf. Not even he can foresee what’s about to happen. After discovering that the One Ring has resurfaced, Gandalf consults the one person he thinks he can trust. Instead he’s imprisoned by Saruman leaving Frodo and company in dire straits.

Imagine how different each of these stories would have been without these acts of betrayal. In every case, the traitor has served a purpose, providing a lesson to the hero/heroine and the reader (or viewer) as well.

So remember, while it may be uncomfortable to contemplate, betrayal is a writer’s best friend.

What say you? Who are your top choices for fictional betrayers? And have you used betrayal in your stories?

Happy Valentine’s Day, my lovelies! I hope this day, no matter how you celebrate or who you celebrate with, is wonderful. Read through to the end, because there will be a special gift for one lucky commenter.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret (we just love those things around here!). Everything you need to know about Valentine’s Day — or love in general — can be learned from a box of Sweethearts (f/k/a Tiny Conversation Hearts). As far as candy goes, these are pretty bland, even a bit chalky. And they have a sad and conspicuous lack of chocolate.

But they come in pretty pastel colors, and each has a pithy little motto: Be Mine. Hot Stuff. True Love. Hug Me. Kiss Me. Even Boogie. Now that you mention it, I do feel like dancing.Thanks! The Necco candy people clearly understand romance and the art of keeping it simple. What more do we really need?

Leave me a comment about Valentine’s Day, love, conversation hearts, keeping it simple, the new Bridget Jones book coming out in the fall, Joe Manganiello, or anything else that strikes your fancy, and you’ll be entered in a random drawing for a fabulous prize package: a hardcover copy of Pride and Prejudice, a lovely Celtic Heart bookmark, a box of Sweethearts, and a dark chocolate raspberry Godiva chocolate bar. Contest ends at midnight Sunday, February 17th, and I’ll announce the winner next Thursday. Good luck, and Game On!

Today’s post is just for fun. Did you love Mad Libs as a kid? I did, and I still do. So how about we do a romance version? No reading through to the end of this post or your Mad Lib won’t be as good! Here’s how it works:

Write down a word, romance-y or silly, for each of the following entries:

noun

body part

verb

noun

noun

past tense verb

verb

plural noun

plural noun

emotion

past tense verb

past tense verb

adverb (yay! you get to use adverbs, guilt free!)

adverb (yay! another one!)

body part

body part

verb

verb

plural verb

noun

Got your words? Great! Now take them and plug them into the following paragraph from a classic novel. Sorry, all you purists out there! I mean no disrespect to Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy–well, maybe only a little. But it’s a loving kind of disrespect.

Elizabeth, feeling all the more than common ___1___ and anxiety of his ___2___, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to ___3___ that her ___4___ had undergone so material a change, since the ___5___ to which he ___6___, as to make her ___7___ with gratitude and ___8___ his present ___9___. The ___10___ which this reply produced, was such as he had probably never ___11___ before; and he ___12___ himself on the occasion as ___13___ and as ___14___ as a man violently in love can be supposed to do. Had Elizabeth been able to encounter his ___15___, she might have seen how well the expression of heartfelt delight, diffused over his ___16___, became him; but, though she could not ___17___, she could ___18___, and he told her of ___19___, which, in proving of what importance she was to him, made his ___20___ more valuable.

How’d it come out? How about sharing your “creation” in the comments section? Have a lovely day, Scribelings!

Like this:

Hi! J here. I bet you took a look at that title and thought to yourself…What!? This is supposed to be a blog about writing… Fear not, intrepid readers, fear not.

Let me show you a tiny snapshot of my life: I have a house, children and pets. The other day, after a stretch of damp rainy days, I noticed that my house stinks. Like pee. We have a puppy, an Alpha dog and twin boys who’ve been potty training for months. Welcome to Fall in the House of Urine.

As torturous as being in the House of Urine is, I thought the phrase had a nice ring to it, but couldn’t think of why that might be so. A bit later it dawned on me. Fall in the House of Urine sounds kinda like The Fall of the House of Usher…at least in my head. And that got me to thinking about the classics. Good ones and bad ones.

As an English major in college, I read a lot of literature, but most of it was crap. Or at least not stuff I liked. George Elliot – phbfft. Hawthorne – love the ideas, can’t get past the language. Dickens – love the stories but too many Victorian Era pop culture references… I have to keep a finger in the end notes just to follow along. And don’t get me started on Mary Shelley – I had to read that stinking book in no fewer than 4 different classes! (I’m not even linking to it!) Seriously, all you English professors out there…out of 4000 years of writing, why do you all pick Frankenstein?! It’s a terrible tale…a doctor builds a guy out of dead parts, reanimates it and then is happy the monster runs away for 1/2 the story. I hated that book; the movies were better.

But for all my rantings, of course we have to be exposed to lots of stuff to find the things we like. And as somebody pointed out to me a few posts back, we don’t all like the same things. There’s probably one of you reading this thinking, what does this Monkey girl know? George Elliot Rocks!

Today’s Secret: Everything ties back to a good story. Put your stories out there because you might be my next George Elliot or my next Poe. Somebody will love what you wrote and somebody will hate it. And that’s OK.

Today’s Question: What’s your favorite classic? What do you like about it?

For those who don’t believe graphic novels and comics are a legitimate form of art, I would direct them to the movies. There have been dozens of films (The Green Mile, 300, Sin City, Watchmen, The Crow, A History Violence – all graphic novels).

And do I have to list the comic book movie adaptations? I think we all know what those are. But wait. I mentioned TV. AMC’s Walking Dead anyone?

I admit it. I’m a comic book geek. I grew up reading comic books and I still own my childhood collection (and, ahem, the comics I’ve purchased as an adult). They are lovingly tucked away in protective sheets in an acid free box. Thanks to my teenage boys, I discovered manga (Japenese graphic novels). The stories are engaging and as well written as novels. The perfect fusion of art and drama.

Needless to say, for romance authors, being asked to put your work into graphic novel form is a huge honor (at least to me). Thankfully, comic books, graphic novels, and manga are finally earning some respect.

Yes, us geeks are finally inheriting the Earth. It’s about time!

Who out there enjoys graphic novels? And if you haven’t read any, what’s holding you back? And would you read your favorite author’s books in graphic novel form?